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Also
from Scotland.....
I have
dealt with creation fundamentalists for quite a number of years now in Scotland.
I may have done the wrong thing here, but I have found it impossible to deal
with them on a personal one-to-one basis and have had to agree to differ rather
than try to convert them to evolution. I find that engaging with the public,
keeping them aware of the existence of palaeontology and evolution in a more
general way, may stem the tide. I chair a group that organises a national
festival of Geology that introduces these concepts through public events,
supported by a team of volunteers and the goodwill of staff at various
organisations and institutions. It is by this method that I believe we can move
forward.... if only it had some kind of corporate backing!
I am
sure that we are not alone in this, and that there are numerous organisations
that do similar to increase public awareness of the geological sciences.
From invasive direct confrontation to passive reinforcement, there are many ways
of defeating misguided fundamentalism. I would prefer the latter, but can
understand the frustration that causes the former.
It is
most definitely not just an American problem, it is a global threat perpertrated
by an axis of creationism that is, in some cases, state supported. I am sure
that we would be the first to support our American colleagues in this war
against creationism.
Neil
-----Original Message-----
From: Park,Lisa E
[mailto:paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk]On Behalf Of Park,Lisa E
Sent:
12 November 2004 01:15
To: paleonet@nhm.ac.uk
Subject: RE:
paleonet American fundamentalism and world paleontology
Amen to that, Jere!
LEP
-----Original Message-----
From:
paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk on behalf of Jere H. Lipps
Sent: Thu 11/11/2004 2:24 PM
To: paleonet@nhm.ac.uk
Cc:
Subject: paleonet American fundamentalism and
world paleontology
Aidan wrote from
Scotland:
Anyway, my point is this
: European people may well have little
understanding of the religious
fundamentalism of America; but equally
there are obviously Americans,
in non-trivial quantities, who simply
fail to understand European
secularism. And probably both groups don't
care what the others think
of them.
Correct, in part. In America we
have both groups too. (I hope the election and discussions following
did not make you think otherwise.) Here in Berkeley and much of the
rest of California, I can say the same thing about knowing more Muslims than
Christians, especially of the fundamentalist/evangelical type.
(Although some quite unfriendly students have challenged me in my lectures
on evolution and to debate these people on creationism/evolution, they are
my clients, not my friends. Unfortunately, here in the US at
least one group cares very much what the other group thinks. Those
kinds of Christians (in part) want to impose their views on the entire US
through the schools. When they finish with the US, they will
begin evangelical work big time in other parts of the globe--the Koreas
(well underway in the south), China, Australia, the Pacific Islands, and
even Turkey. It is not yet a European problem, but it will be
hard to suppress these views completely. Already, I understand,
there are cells of these people in the UK, Germany, Russia, and maybe other
places as well. Be prepared.
Also, since Americans, for good or
evil, make up a huge proportion of paleontologists in the world, attacks on
us will have impact on you. We will spend even more time dealing with
it and you will become "embedded" in that mess. Some of those attacks
are rather direct upon the entire field of international paleontology.
Take the recent publication in the Proceedings of the Biological Society of
Washington by Steven Meyer, a leader in the "Intelligent Design" movement
(another kind of creationism pushed with millions of dollars by the
Discovery Institute: http://www.discovery.org/ ), in which he uses, as
ID evangelicals have been doing for some time (see John Wells, Icons of
Evolution), the Cambrian radiation as evidence of an Intelligent Designer,
by which they mean god. (See: "The Origin of Biological
Information and the Higher Taxonomic Categories" By: Stephen
C. Meyer
Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington,
September 29, 2004 on line at http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=2177&program=CSC%20-%20Scientific%20Research%20and%20Scholarship%20-%20Science
). This was in a peer-reviewed journal, although the peer review
process clearly failed because the editor himself appears to be one of them
or at least a sympathizer, so I guess we don't know who the "peers"
are. We will ignore it, except in these kinds of discussions,
but one day we will all be confronted with this stuff, if not by them then
by our students and friends outside our loop.
As in politics and
policy in general, don't dismiss the American conservative movement as not
having impact on you. It already has, both in world events and in
paleontology.
JHL
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